Cover Story

TOO YOUNG TO RETIRE So Luigi wants to help others

 DALLAS SHERRINGHAM

When Luigi De Luca sold his ‘La Cremeria De Luca’ Gelato Café in Five dock last year he found retirement boring and believed he still had so much to give to struggling businesses in the Blacktown area.

Luigi, 64, has lived in Blacktown for three years and this week he said the CBD was looking “a little tired” and businesses were struggling.

“We need to get some life back into the area,” he said. “I want to assist small and family businesses who need some guidance and help running and growing their business,” he said.

And he is not looking for a reward, he just wants to use his expertise to help younger businesspeople in need of some guidance,

Luigi was a leading light in the Italian community and Inner West business when his Café on a prominent corner of the Great Northern Rd became ‘the place to go’ for gelato, hot chocolate or coff ee with a pastry in Sydney.

Luigi’s father Salvatore fi rst started selling gelato on the streets of Messina, Sicily, in 1937.

At the time Salvatore said: “If you want to be rich, don’t make gelato”.

“My father grew up in Messina, the third largest city in Sicily and I grew up alongside him learning the art of making hot chocolate and gelato.

“Hot chocolate is an old-fashioned tradition that is as much about having a good time and sharing a nice conversation as it is enjoying a luxurious treat. A cup of hot chocolate is very calming,” he said.

In 1985 Luigi opened ‘Cremeria Siciliana’ with his wife Gavina and then he came to Sydney consulting for mass production Gelato houses which were suff ering and decided to stay.

In 1995 he opened the fi rst free standing gelateria ‘La Cremeria’ in Norton St, Leichardt. In 2000, ‘De Luca Gelateria’ opened just across from the famous Bondi Beach.

In 2013, the De Luca’s opened ‘Cremeria De Luca’ in Five Dock and the rest is history with the Café becoming a Sydney institution: “a little piece of Italy in Five Dock”, as one leading publication said..

There are businesses struggling to survive

“A cup of hot chocolate might seem pretty simple, but it's tied in with socialising and that makes me very happy. I'm shocked and happily surprised that I sometimes have three generations of the one family coming in for a hot chocolate at eight or nine o'clock at night–that is how life in Sicily is and that is how life should be,” he said.

Luigi sold the café and decided to retire, but this super charged hospitality and public relations expert knew he still had a lot to give. “I just turned 64 and, for many businesses, I am too old to be hired,” he said.

“My idea is that people like me have enough experience to help troubled businesses.

“I want to help small family businesses that have survival problems and do not have the skills to create new ideas or dishes to off er to customers.

“Some people think I'm too old or too qualifi ed, but I am available to help those small family businesses in the cafes, catering, pastry, gelato, ice cream and food sector in general.”

Luigi is the perfect man to create new dishes, “giving new light to the place”.

“My off er is to give new hope and a strategy for success to the business.”

“I can guarantee you that in our community there are family members with commercial activities that are struggling to survive, especially after the crisis caused by COVID-19.”

Luigi believes a “hands on” personal approach is much better that trying to improve a business through institutional organizations.

“I can assure you this type of advice does not help those who do not even have time to read that type of material. It is advice aimed only at those who can dedicate themselves to numbers and then analyse the problem without touching the real problem.”

His list of achievements is impressive. “I can help you with sauces, salad dressings, desserts, risotto, bruschetta. I will help you save on semi-fi nished products to make ice cream, gelato, sorbets or pastry and custard, or even your electricity consumption.

“I can help you organize a themed evening or how to cook for many people in an organized way.

“People like me who want to off er their experience to improve the lives of others, have the right to work and should not be seen as useless or cumbersome in the premises.

“Anyone who wants my help to relaunch their business, come forward without fear of wasting time or money. Of course, I am available to help and ask for no reward.“

Luigi Da Luca is ready to help Blacktown businesses. His father Salvatore’s original mobile gelato café in Messina.